Rep. Tim Murphy Urged Girlfriend to Get Abortion. Yawn.

Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania urged his girlfriend (yes, he's married) to get an abortion. And he also said he "winced" at his own office's statement on late-term abortion. I'm so sick of these guys.

Does it piss me off? Yup. Does it surprise me? Nope. They're playing us. They've been playing us for so long that they think it's game over.

Republican Rep. Tim Murphy admitted to the affair with a friend in a statement released by his office last month. Today the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that when Murphy believed Shannon Edwards, the woman he’d had the affair with, was pregnant he urged her to have an abortion. This came to light in a text message exchange prompted by a pro-life statement the congressman published on Facebook in January. It read, “The United States is one of just seven countries worldwide that permits elective abortion more than halfway through pregnancy (beyond 20 weeks). It is a tragic shame that America is leading the world in discarding and disregarding the most vulnerable.” Ms. Edwards took offense at that sentiment:

A text message sent in January to U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy by a woman with whom he had an extra-marital relationship took him to task for an anti-abortion statement posted on Facebook from his office’s public account.
“And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship, wrote to Mr. Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare.

A text from Mr. Murphy’s cell phone number that same day in response says, “I get what you say about my March for life messages. I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”

The guy's a liar at every level. He's lying to his wife. He's lying to his girlfriend. And he's lying to us. This guy is about one guy - Tim Murphy. But screw him. I don't care at all about Tim Murphy. He's not unique. I hope the pro-lifers primary him. And yeah, maybe they'll lose the seat to Democrats because of it but who cares. (The seat has flipped between the two parties regularly.) But this guy is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

When I was active in politics I remember being stunned about how much Republicans disdained pro-lifers. I was working on a campaign back then so they thought I was one of those hacks that didn't really give a damn about a damn thing except winning. I remember all these Republican leaders rolling their eyes at the mere mention of pro-lifers. They were embarrassed by them. In short, they winced.

To Republicans, pro-lifers are the oogedy-boogedy crazy religious types that aren't fit for the fancy parties. Oh, they'll take their money. And they'll ask them to work the polls. But when it comes time to actually do something for them like introduce legislation that has a prayer of passing, not so much.

These Republican leader types want to make it clear to their friends that they're not part of THAT crowd. You see, pro-lifers are like "the help" to them. They're of a different class and they're to be ignored for the most part. At least the Democrats have the stones to kick pro-lifers out of the party. Republicans invite us in and then roll their eyes and whisper to each other when they think we're out of earshot. (It's hard to find good help nowadays.)

Even now, the Republican led House is touting that they just passed a bill banning late-term abortions. But it's sort of a scam. They all know there's not a chance of this actually passing the Senate. Zero chance. This will get filibustered. They know it. So it's a vote that changes nothing. Kinda' like the way they voted to end Obamacare a few dozen times when they knew they couldn't get it signed but when it actually mattered they couldn't get it done.

It's such a sham that even Tim Murphy voted for it. I wasn't watching CNN so I don't know if he winced when he cast his vote.